A Hero's Comeback
by genolink
Summary: This is the tale of a man, who was forgotten by time, yet still continues to fight. Now that his destiny has changed, he journies with with two other demgods who also try to find their own paths.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1-Back to Reality**

A middle aged man walked into the noisy building, and into the main lobby. He had light brown hair, with streaks of white going through it. He had on a black suit, with a red dress shirt under the coat, with a black tie on. He pulled a picture out of his coat pocket of four kids (two boys, and two girls) huddled into a group photo. He walked into the game room, and looked around for a boy in the picture. He walked around, shaking his head every once in a while to remember what he was there for. Finally, he found a boy playing pac-man. He was about fourteen, with light brown skin, and a black afro. He had on blue shorts, a blue t-shirt, and blue sneakers. He played as if he were in a daze.

"Ok kid, let's go." the man said in a deep voice. The boy just waved his hand signaling for him to go away. The man had little patience, and grabbed the boy by the shirt collar.

"Hey." the boy said lazily. "What's your problem old man."

"Hunter, snap out of it." the boy made a puzzled face, like he was trying to remember something. "Come on Bro. Think hard. Try to remember a few things." The boy stood there, trying to think of something to remember, but he couldn't even remember his last name.

"Mabey this will jog your memory. Try to remember Liz, and Mia." He showed the boy the picture, and the boy just stared at it.

"Liz. Mia." the boy kept repeating, as he looked at the picture. Suddenly, he remembered.

"Hey! Who are you? How do you know those names? How did you get that picture?" The boy started asking, as he remembered everything.

"Good. You came to your senses. We'll take this outside." The boy was about to argue, but he remembered where he was.

"Ok." he said, and they headed outside.

They walked outside, and it was the middle of the night, but the city lights kept the city bright. Once they were outside, the man looked at the nearest news stand. "Not too much time has passed. For me at least."

"Ok. But who are you?" The boy asked. The man let out a half hearted laugh.

"I guess she was right. I did rub off on you. Your just as impatient as I used to be bro."

"Bro..." The boy said. "The only guy who calls me bro is..." The boy smiled widely. "DUKE!" The boy tackled him with a bear hug.

"Hows it going Hunter?" he said with a smile.

"Duke. You got... Kind of old." said Hunter.

He laughed, and said "That's what happens after thirty years."

"Thirty years."

"You sound surprised. You know that time works differently in the Lotus Casino."

"Not just that. Also that the prophesy took thirty extra years to get completed." said Hunter as he started to shiver.

"I guess we should get out of the cold." said Duke. They walked on until they got to a parking lot. They got into a black jeep, and started driving through the city.

"I figured you would get that Jeep you always used to talk about."

"Yeah. That one you guys always used to say i'll never get." they sat in silence for a minute, or two, until Hunter finally spoke up and said

"What ever happened to Liz? She became a teacher like she always would say right?"

"No. Instead she became a hunter."

"A hunter? When?" he said sounding surprised.

"A few years after you left. She didn't really like the idea of having just a normal life."

Hunter started laughing after he heard that. "Your kidding. You look like you live a normal life, but you were always the loose cannon. The one who always hated the idea of being normal. Yet the girl who wanted nothing more than to be normal decided to keep the life of running away from monsters."

"Time has a way of changing things. I mean just look at yourself. He pulled down the mirror, and he saw how much he had changed. He looked a lot older, he was taller, and he even had an afro.

"What about you? What are you doing with your life?" he asked.

"Well, i'm a body guard now. I also have a family."

"Wow. Your the last person I would've thought to settle down."

"Yeah." He said passing Hunter his wallet. He looked through the pictures. A lot of them had a woman he assumed was his wife. There were also pictures with a little boy, and girl, which were his kids. He also saw saw pictures with him, Duke, Liz, and Mia in them as well.

"She's pretty." he said after he was done looking through the pictures. "Why do you keep all those pictures anyway?"

"I keep them as memories. Something to hold onto." There was another minute pause, when Hunter finally broke the silence again.

"How has my mom been doing lately?" I took Duke a while to answer.

"She's been doing better lately. After I told her what you wanted me to tell her, she took it pretty hard. It took her a while to get over it. Now, she's alive and well."

"That's good to know." said Hunter, as he wiped a tear from his cheek. He was about to ask if he should've done what he did, but hesitated because of what he might say. He had to change the subject.

"What about camp?"

"You want to know how everyone took the fact that the great hero Hunter had disappeared?"

"I told you before about calling me that." he said with a laugh. Duke also chuckled a little at that. "Well Bro, some took it better than others. Some were kind of glad about it, but you probibly figured they would be."

"Yeah. We sure did make a few enemies back then didn't we?" They kept talking about old times, until they both started getting tired.

"I guess we'll rest for the night." he said looking at the clock that read 12:27. They drove around until they found a hotel to stay in. They checked into a two bed room.

"Alright, you've had a long night." said Duke as they got into the room. "We'll rest for the night, and you can decide what you want to-" he stopped talking whenhe saw Hunter passed out on one the beds. Duke just shrugged and said

"You havn't really changed at all have you? You still act like my little brother..."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2-A Place to Start

As Hunter was dreaming, he was on a road in the road in the middle of a desert. He looked behind himself, and saw an RV that had been destroyed. It was still in flames, and let off a giant cloud of smoke. There were craters in the sand, still sizzling. He looked down the road, and saw a boy carrying a spear, and a shield walking down the road. He had blond hair, green eyes, and was wearing a tattered red shirt, and jeans. He also had a pair of sneakers with wings attached to them. He stuck his spear into the ground, and pulled it out a letter.

"It better be worth it, old man!" he said to himself. Off in the distance, the boy saw a car coming from behind him. He put the letter into his pocket, he tapped a bottom of his shield, and it turned into a watch. He pushed a button on the shaft of his spear, and it changed into a glove. He waved his hands at the oncoming car, and put on a sad face. The car kept getting closer, and he saw that it was a police car. The police man pulled over, and rolled down the window.

"Son, isn't it a little to early for you to be out so late in the middle of nowhere?" the officer said.

"Well, I was heading to Las Vegas with my family, when our RV's just exploded!" the boy said starting to cry. The officer nodded his head, and started writing things down.

"I didn't see anyone back there."

"I-I think they probably went off somewhere else. I was unconscious when it was still light out."

the officer wrote more things down, and finally said

"What's your name son?"

"Rusty Shakelford."

"Well Rusty, I have a report that an RV was stolen not long ago, and you match the description. The thief went by the name Fred Hawkins."

"But I don't know who that is..."

"Oh, well I have other reports about a kid with your exact description under different names. Along with a string of thefts attached with those names." the boy started growing red, and backing away.

"Well you see, the thing about that is..." and the boy took off running away from the car. The car started chasing after him, and the boy jumped off into the sand dunes. The cop got out of his car, and looked over where the boy jumped. He went to look at where he landed, and turned around to see him in his car.

"NEXT TIME DON'T LEAVE YOUR KEYS IN THE CAR!" the boy said laughing, and driving away.

The dream shifted, and he was at the beach. It was nearly sunrise, and he saw a girl near the ocean. She was walking around like she was waiting for someone to show up. The sun was starting to rise on where they were.

"Hey!" said someone in the background. Hunter turned around, startled but remembered that he was invisible. She was being called by a coast guard that had the words Santa Monica Pier on his jacket. The girl turned around, and Hunter got a glimpse of her face. He took a look, and his jaw dropped. She ran off, as the coast guard ran after her. Hunter stood there, not being able to believe what he just saw.

"Could that be? No way!" he said to himself out loud. He tried to run after her, but he started fading.

He woke up on a hotel bed, with his face in a pile of drool. He got up, and went to the bathroom to splash off his face.

"Again with these cryptic dreams!" he yelled to his self. "I really wish the gods would tell me what they want me to do!" He opened the bathroom door, and Duke was standing right in front of it.

"Bad dream huh." he said.

"More like confusing." Hunter told him about the dream, excluding the part with the girl. Duke stood there for a second, and finally said

"I don't understand it much either. If only we had Liz around. She probably could figure it out." Hunter remembered one of the thousand of speeches she would give him.

"If you have a dream like that, and can't get anything from just the dream, go where it was." she told him once. He figured it would be pointless to go where the boy was because he was probably long gone from there. So he decided to go to the next best place.

"Hey, do you know where the Santa Monica Pier?" he asked Duke. He looked at him, and asked

"Why would you go there?" Hunter thought of a quick excuse he could make.

"The letter the boy had had that name on it."

"I thought you didn't read the letter. In fact, you can barely read at all."

"Well, he said that under his breath."

"I know your lying you know."

"Well, just trust me. I need to go there." He said looking him straight in the eye. Duke glared right back at him. They stood there for about half a minute, until finally, Duke said

"I hate the fact that I can't really intimidate you."

"Well, you taught me pretty well."

"Alright. We'll head there."

They had a long car ride to get to the pier. When they got there, not too many people were around, seeing as to how it was the middle of fall. They parked the car, and headed onto the docks. Hunter kept looking around for one of the people in his dream, but was having no luck. It grew to noon, and they had been looking for an hour.

"I doubt we'll find anything related to your dream. Are you sure you said here?" asked Duke.

"Yeah. It's not like i'de just make up some random beach."

"Hey. i'm just saying that maybe you should try another day." The second he said that, there was a scream, followed by people running away.

"Rabid dog!" one of them yelled.

"It's huge!" another one yelled. Hunter turned to see what everyone was running from. There was a hell hound running right towards him, and full speed. He didn't have any time to react, so all he could do was put his arms up. Instead of being tackled by the hell hound, a pile of golden dust flew on him. He looked at Duke, and he had his bronze axe. Hunter was about to say thank you, but Duke just tossed him two rings. He caught them, and put them on. The second he did, he realized that they were both surrounded by hell hounds.

"Adelfosyni!" he yelled, and the rings transformed themselves into two curved bronze swords.

"Remember how to use those?" Duke asked over the snarling, and barking hell hounds.

"Just make sure you've got my back." Hunter as he charged at the first hell hound...


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3-Dog Fight

They were surrounded by 12 hell hounds. Hunter moved quickly, and stabbed the first one in the neck. The one on the left tried to attack him, but he ducked. The one on the right went in, and h rolled out of the way. He spun around, and took out the two. He had gotten out of the circle, and looked out at Duke. Duke had attacked one, but another was trying to attack him on the left. He punched it, and dodged the one on his right. One jumped on his back, and bit him on the shoulder. Hunter tried to go after him, but another 3 hell hounds blocked the way. He rushed them, while dodging, getting scratched up by all 3 of them. He kept going for Duke, who had knocked the hell hound off, but was still being attacked. Hunter kept going, cutting, and dodging through the frenzy.

Duke was swinging his axe,fending off hell hounds that kept coming. for the ones he couldn't hit, he knocked away away with the hilt of his axe, and for the rest he just got hit. Hunter kept dodging, and slashing, and getting hit. Hunter got to the end of the swarm, and he saw that there were only 4 hounds left.

"Hey ya big ugly muts! Come and get me!" he yelled. The 4 turned around, and started going towards him. He started running, and they followed. One jumped, and tried to bite him from behind, but Duke hit it with his axe. Hunter turned around, and saw 2 of them charging him. One jumped at him, and the other stayed low. He jumped on one, and cut the other one as it jumped past him. With his other sword, he stabbed the other hound, and it turned to dust.

"That was a piece of cake!" Hunter said. "You still need to work on blocking dude." he rubbed some of his wounds.

"I got some scratches. how bout you?" he waited for a response, but didn't get one.

"Uh, Duke?"he looked around, but he was nowhere to be found. Everybody else had run off, so he was all alone. He walked along, until he heard something. It sounded like barking. It wasn't just one. It sounded like a lot of big dogs. He looked at the direction it was coming from, and saw a bunch of hell hounds coming towards him; more than they had just gotten done facing.

"Oh boy. Looks like a brawls goin down." he started running towards them at full speed. He ran into the hoard, slashing the first hell hound in the lead. He stabbed the one to his left, and dodged the one that tried to bite him on the arm. He kept cutting, stabbing, and dodging, until he realized that he was surrounded. He tried to force his way out, and run towards the beach. He pushed into the hell hounds, but it was too much.

"I'm in a real jam!" he said. "DUKE!" he called, but couldn't hear, or see anything but hell hounds. He called one last time, and this time he heard something. It wasn't Duke, or even anyones voice. It was a police siren. Some of the hounds stopped, and looked to see it. The police car crashed into the hoard. It was driven by the boy from Hunter's dream. He kept driving, and crashed into the sand dunes. With a huge hole in the hell hounds, Hunter ran to the car.

The boy tried to get out of the car, but it was surrounded by angry hell hounds. One ripped the door off, but the boy had a spear ready, and poked it in the eye. It backed off, and the boy followed in out of the car. The hounds charged him, but he got out his shield, and knocked them away. He stabbed one, and bashed one on his left with his shield. He hit another with the shaft of his spear, and started running through them with his shield raised. He ran to the beach, stabbing, and knocking away hell hounds. He reached the edge of the water, stopped, and turned around.

"Catch me if you can!" he said. His sneakers sprouted wings, and he flew over their heads. He flew back to the docks, but a hound jumped, and bit his ankle. He as he was getting dragged down, he tried kicking it, but it was no use. The boy was about to attack it with his spear, but Hunter cut it, and it turned to dust, freeing the boy. The boy still fell because one of the wings had been damaged. He landed next to Hunter, and got on one knee.

"Thanks." he said.

"No problem man." Hunter said. "You sure you can fight?" the boys ankle was bleeding. He put pressure on it, and cringed. "I'll have to manage." he said.

They fought back to back. Hell hounds rushed at them, and they fended them off. They stayed close, attacking, and blocking. As they were fighting, some hounds outside the peremiter started falling. They both noticed, and one fell. Than another, and another. They looked up, and saw a the girl from Hunters dream with a bow, sniping them off. He saw that a hell hound was coming from behind her.

"Mia! Look out!" he yelled out. Then, he saw Duke run over, and kill it. He felt relief seeing that she was being covered by Duke.

"Kid! What are standing there for?" said the boy. he had been guarding him as he was just standing there. He relized that he had been standing there, raised his swords, and kept fighting. Eventually, they were able to fend off the remaning hell hounds.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4-We Should Be a Team... Right?

The four of them could hear police sirens in the distance.

"Oh man. More cops!" the boy said. He started limping away, heading to the crashed police car.

"Your kidding right?" said Hunter. "You just walk off."

"I just gotta get back to my car."

"Man, what are you talking about? You gotta split." he looked at him like he was crazy, and kept limping.

"Who are you anyway?" he was about to tell him a fake name, but then he remembered something.

"Well, you can call me Zack." he said hesitantly.

"I'm Hunter." he said reaching out his hand.

"Hey guy with the afro?" said the girl. "What did you call me earlier?" she said as she ran up to them.

"Oh, well. You just look like someone I know." he said. he couldn't help but notice that she did. She had the same light brown skin, same short black hair, and the same dark brown eyes. She looked just like her.

"Well, i'm not her. I'm Amber."

"I'm Hunter, and this is-"

"I'm Zack." he cut in.

"OK. Well can you tell this guy to get real, and we gotta split?" they both looked at him, and at each other.

"What?" asked Zack.

"You know. We gotta split."

"I think he's talking in some old slang." said Amber.

"Well whatever. I just gotta get my stuff from that car." he said pointing at the police car. They helped him to the police car, and he grabbed a book bag from the seat. He pulled out a block of ambrosia, and ate it.

"You guys need any?" he asked.

"I could use some." said Amber. She had some injuries too.

"Me too I guess." said Hunter. They ate the squares, and started running as the police showed up. They ran towards the city, and eventually stopped in a parking lot.

"Now where did he park?" Hunter said to himself. He looked around the almost empty parking lot. Eventually Duke drove up to them.

"Hop in." he said.

"Mr?" Amber said.

"Awesome timing!" said Hunter. "So where to next guys?"

"I'm off." said Zack, who had already broken into a car, and started it.

"Wait. Don't you wanna hang with us?" Hunter asked.

"I don't really wanna hang with some guy stuck in the 70's, and some old dude." he looked over at Amber. "You on the other hand. We could have lots of fun together."

"What are you talking about?" she said. "I'm not that kind of girl."

"Oh well. Astalavista!" He said about to drive off. He was about to leave the parking lot, but Hunter walked in front of the car.

"You came all this way, an your just gonna split? I think your old man wanted you to stick with us."

"How do you know about what my old man wanted?"

"Well if you think about it, it makes sense." cut in Amber. "I came here because I got a message to come here, and look for two boy fighting off hell hounds. It's obvious that it's you two. I'm guessing that you two had similar signs."

"I had a dream with the two of you in it." said Hunter. "Zack also had a letter from his dad in his dream as well." they both looked at Zack. He pulled a letter out of his pocket.  
"This letter here? It said to come here, and the rest would be obvious."

"OK then. It's obviously a sign that we all needed to meet, and be together."

"I dig it. We need to be a team." he looked at Zack. "You in?"

"No. We were probably called together to help each other out. Besides, I'm not a team player anymore. Besides, with my reputation, we'll all end up in jail."

"But..." started Amber.

"Well than, go ahead." said Hunter.

"What? You too?" she said.

"This guy clearly dosn't want to be on a team. He seems like a loose canon that won't follow any orders he'd be given. He'd only slow us down."

"But the gods want us to stick together!"

"And?"

"What do you mean and?"

"We don't have to just blindly obey what they tell us to do. They don't always know best."

"Maybe not, but still... I think we're supposed to."

"You guys will be fine without me." said Zack. He started to drive off as Hunter moved out of the way, and he drove off into the distance.


End file.
